The gospel on celebrity and pop culture

After playing his own game at Staples Center on Monday, Justin Bieber landed courtside with actor buddy Jaden Smith in the same venue Tuesday for the Los Angeles Lakers' championship-ring ceremony and season-opening game.

Bieber flashed Lakers exec Jeannie Buss' ring for the cameras, for Jaden and perhaps for some of the Lakers cheerleaders he mingled with courtside.

The ring, according to our pals in the sports department, are "small asteroids of excess designed by owner Jerry Buss," with 16 over-sized diamonds for each Lakers title, a 3-D rendering of each player's face and a small piece of the leather from a basketball used in Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

Subtly elegant, no?

Biebs was spotted chatting with soccer star David Beckham, and Denzel Washington was in the crowd as well. After a rocky start (perhaps they were a bit distracted?), the Lakers rallied to beat the Houston Rockets, 112-110, in their season opener.

We have to ask, how many copies of that white jeans suit and purple hoodie does a guy have to have to stay spotless on a seemingly never-ending tour? Bieber's "My World 2.0" tour blew through L.A. back in July for a Nokia Theatre concert that included almost exactly the same scene shown below.